Analogies for perspective

Analogies for perspective

1. Calling somebody close-minded because they like a very specific type of music is like criticizing a man that is exclusively attracted to women:

“Dog, Why are you so close-minded? There are tons of Nice guys out there. Expand your horizons. This is what’s wrong with people nowadays they’re so narrow minded. Do you know how ignorant you sound by limiting yourself to just one sex? “

2. Dudes with wack beats Criticizing a minute element of a dope beat is like Rosie O’donnell saying rihana’s forhead is too big. There are a gang of amazing known and slightly lesser known producers that are crazy nice, but I’ve noticed that, for whatever reason, People with a MUCH lower skill level have a lot of criticism for them. It’s funny to me. They’re not even close to being capable of making something as dope as the cats they’re criticizing but they can say “Illmind’s hi-hats are always too...[insert ridiculous claim here]”. Its like ugly basement dwelling pimple laden pre-teens saying Christina Millian is aight.

“Yeah, Just Blaze is dope, but his drums need to be turned down. He always does that crap, I dunno what his problem is. Its called EQing, get a clue Justin!!!! “ (Turns back to his mom’s computer screen with a bootleg copy of [insert software here] and turns on pc speakers)

=

“I totally wouldn’t bang Kim Kardashian, her lips are way to big. They look fake” (Rinses headgear-retainer off and then resumes reading advanced dungeons and dragons guide book)

This is the first post in my “Stop Hating, Show Love” series.

Love fever, catch it......(That slogan probably wont catch on.)

Mediocrity is the new Hot

(This isnt particularly Beat related but there is a correlation)

Why is normalcy the new excellence?

lets look at a two rappers for the sake of my question:

1. Young Joc
2. Mims

(I'm gonna exclude solja boy because he's only 17. But if your older than him and your a male and you bought his album, your a flaming homo. Just so you understand)

These are considered to be hot up-and-coming emcees. One is from NY and one is from ATL. Can you tell which is which if nobody told you? nope.

Have any of these two ever said anything that made you go "OOOOOh, that was ill!!" or "I like how he put that, that was dope"...no sir

lets go one step further and just disregard lyrics alltogether, have any of them made a dope song, that you wanted to hear more than once??...not even close!

Are they capable of making classic material? Have they come close to trying to make anything substantial and dope?? ...nein!

HOW ARE THESE TWO DUDES CONSIDERED TO BE THE NEW BREED OF YOUNG HOT RAPPERS?

If anybody says they like em, I ask them to defend themselves immediately. I dont care if they're a 11 year old girl or a 29 year old guy. I want to know what it is you like about any of those two rappers. Those two dudes music has no redeeming value what so ever.

This is not a (hip hop is dead or hip hop is alive) post,

I just want to know, how being a very unremarkable rapper can get you the utmost attention!! These n*ggas cant rap! Doesnt anybody else notice this?

Kinda like that one sudanese model named Alek Wek. She's jet black (nothing wrong with that, I like dark chocolate), bald and rail thin. I'd agree that most designer line models look mad wierd but why even front like Alek Wek is attractive. That woman looks like Baraka from Mortal Kombat II. She looks disturbing to me, but she's been in a gang of magazine ads and oprah and tyra and other shows, and I feel like the only one that thinks she is not only unattractive, but off-puttingly unattractive. It wouldnt be so bad if people werent like "She has unconventional striking looks bla blah blah" No she doesnt, she's just not attractive!!!
Harsh...perhaps
true...darn skippy and I defy anybody to say oh yeah, she's a dime.

same with Young Joc and Mims. These n*ggas music is mediocre and thats being very generous and they're getting all the press in the world, they're all on the radio/mags/TV and nobody is saying, I dont like them dudes at all, they're not good. And again, I feel like the only one that thinks that they suck balls hard.
They suck so bad I rather hear a chingy LP produced exclusively by the n*gga that did the laffy taffy beat, than a joc and mims collabo.

anyway, just thought I'd get that off of my chest.


no disrespect intended to Alek Wek, get that money baby girl......lol






p.p.s. In "This is why I'm hot" Mims never mentions why he's hot.

I remain unconvinced.

My Feelings While Record Digging

Maybe this is more telling of my personality flaws than it is a typical response but, whenever I'm digging, I have this unexplainable sense of entitlement. LOL
Like others can get records but only after I have leisurely strolled through the spot and grabbed or dismissed everything I felt like. I hate when I've only gon through, a few crates and somebody else is looking in a crate I haven’t gotten to yet. I wanna be like "HEY HEY...GET!" like I’m shooing a small animal away or something, but home training prevails.
What’s worse is when somebody digs in a crate you just finished. Several things go through my mind when this happens:
1. Why would this guy go after a crate I just finished, does he think my taste sucks? Is he quietly thinkin "this n*gga prolly don’t even know what to grab".

2. What if I missed something dope? What if two records were stuck together and I accidently thumbed em both thinkin they were one? Could I be like "Excuse me sir, I was just there and I didn’t know those were stuck together, hand me that record you’re holding please."

3. If you’re after the stuff I left behind, you must have amazing confidence in A. your digging skills or B. Your beat making skills. Like, you’re either so up on records that even the common stuff holds rare value to you or you just know you can make crack out of 101 strings lps

But back to my main point,
I am also very annoyed by the intentions of these people looking for records. I personally feel like, if you’re not a beat maker, get out of the store you faggot. Here's why I feel this way:

A. If you’re a collector that doesn’t make beats your just robbing beat makers of vinyl, because you’re just grabbing hot stuff and sitting on it!!
What if I was a food collector in Somalia?? Those pot bellied n*ggas in them perpetual fly clouds could put that food to much better use than I could just casually collecting different types of nutritional sustenance for my personal kicks and giggles.
(True story: Once a fat white girl with a tye dye shirt grabbed like four marvin gaye records before I got to the crate. I then heard her tell the clerk she grabbed them cuz she liked the way Marvin Gaye's hair looked and she was gon hang them in her dorm..........murk yourself)

B. If you grew up with the music and you’re grabbing it for the sake of nostalgia you’re on my nerves. Get a cd you fossil! They got box sets that contain every thing you ever listened to in one nice tidy package, (I've seen the infomercials at 3:00AM to prove it). Records belong to beat makers.

(Disclaimer: This assessment is very likely extremely selfish and near-sited but re-read my aforementioned inexplicable sense of entitlement)


You ever feel really confident about NOT choosing a certain record, like "fun with typewriters, 1983?? I'm not gon use this" but then when somebody else picks it up you get terrified. "I Shoulda just grabbed it, it was only 75cents, why didn’t I just keep it" despite the fact that you have four crates worth of stuff on you?

again, maybe it’s just me, but I feel like anybody who can’t prove they are actually going to use the record "correctly" should have to forfeit it to anybody in attendance who is. Like if a collector is grabbing stuff to add to the rest of his untapped gems and Just Blaze walks in, the clerk should get on a P.A. and be like "ATTENTION ALL COLLECTORS, ATTENTION ALL COLLECTORS, PLEASE LEAVE ALL VINLY IN THE BLACK BIN FOR REAL PRODUCER APPROVAL, I REPEAT, PLEASE LEAVE ALL OF YOUR SELECTIONS IN THE BIN FOR REAL PRODUCER APPROVAL" And then JB could casually walk over and look through them, pick what he wants from the black bin and leave what he feels they can keep, and then he'd continue his digging as usual. That’s only right!


before I end this rant, I have one more analogy to drill my point home.


How would everybody feel if you saw Woody Allen dating ‘Delicious’ (from Flavor of Love...you know...the thick joint with the GIANT booty that you wanted to bite) yep. and you overheard him saying "I plan to marry her and lead a celibate lifestyle with her because I appreciate her soul so much" You'd be like "oh this faggot has lost his mind??? Lemme get a crack at that before you hand cuff her away for a life of improper usage!" Case in Point!

Dont be a Funeral Fan

Is anybody interested in amazing producers 6ft above the ground?

Sounds like an odd question on first read, but g'head and re-read that jawn. Before you answer that, let me hit you with one more oddly phrased question. How many people were gigantic fans of Dilla before his body was filled with formaldehydes? I'm sure plenty of people will say yes and I'm also sure that it won’t be nearly enough.

This is not a rant about artists being appreciated more after their death. That’s something I think I understand. I believe it’s natural to miss something you are sure you will never experience anew. This is; however, a rant about how hip hop fans insist that the only way an amazing artist will receive his/her due respect is posthumously.

James Yancey has been in the game since 92. 92! He was on his mp when I was still tryin to steal on the sandman and find the light-up Destro. Let’s do some simple math. Dilla was nice from the jump, (which we have learned was 92), he got progressively nicer for 14 years, right up to his death (2/10/06). So from 1992 to February 10 of 2006 when do you think he received the bulk of his due respect? The answer to that question is February 11, 2006.

This delayed respect comes from underground hip-hop fans, long time dilla heads and collaborators who never really bigged him up as the genius that he was in the way that he deserved. Oh they all showed up to write lengthy retrospectives; however, during dilla's life some of the same cats allowed some pretty shady crediting goins-on to take place.

I blame the nature of underground hip-hop’s fans. As much as I hate labeling "types of hip-hop" beyond good or bad I have to place the blame on the fact that "underground" hip-hop fans seem to be convinced that this style of music was nicknamed this cuz it sounds cool or something. In fact this style of music is called this because the sh*t don’t get purchased!! Mainstream hiphop and underground hiphop are polar opposites because of sales figures, not style. If everybody copped slum village cuz they liked two singles from it and downloaded D4L's lps and loved em but never bought em, D4L would be underground and SV would be Pop.

Fans of Hip Hop suck at being fans. Buy your favorite artists stuff! Why didn't dilla projects go "plat a whole bunch of times" to quote Jigga. backpackers dont buy records. They should be called trackjackers. When an artist’s fans dont buy his/her records he has to adapt and attract a different group but when this happens people call them a sellout. But I digress... Fans of pop music are excellent at being fans!! When they like a m***** F***** they do numbers!! you cant name a critically acclaimed but poor selling boy band can you? How many pop princesses are there? Madonna is 75 years old and she's still doin "like a virgin" numbers. Plies has done more numbers than black milk!!!! That simply should not happen no matter the circumstance!!! Black Milk is an incredibly talented producer and rapper and Plies...well...Plies?! again, I digress...

People who loved dilla but didn't support him get the screw face. Your the reason why extremely talented artists struggle. Those who declared dilla the greatest only after his death, or Funeral Fans, (as they will be known here on out), are the worst. However that’s a problem that can be easily remedied. If you like an artist. Buy their music! Buy it from Itunes, buy it from stores, how ever you get it just buy it. You like it right? THEN BUY IT!!! Don’t be a plague ass nigga. Taking what you like and not giving back. Hip Hop parasite ass niggas siphoning off the source (not the magazine). This just dries up the good hip-hop. Companies need to see that this style of hiphop can be profitable before they invest in it enough to make it mainstream again. Now before anybody says it, no I’m not trying to ghost ride the delorean back to 94’. I just want this trend of “Critically acclaimed but poorly selling” “legends” to end before we have another underappreciated legend that dies with more fans than sales.

How many of yall have ever heard of Kev Brown. Those that have you already know what the deal is. His music is crazy!! Appreciate him now! How many of yall like Black Milk? Cop his stuff now! I promise you it wont bankrupt you.

I bump into Kev Brown from time to time. He is the most humble, deserving dude I have ever met!! I actually bought “I do what I do” from Him! Lol. He’s an incredible talent that should be recognized as such without having to murk himself.

Rant semi-over...lol

....oh there will be more.

One Track Mind!!!!!!

What up readers, browsers, skimmers, perusers, even the strippers... (Jesus walks for them). You are now tuned in to yet another blog site and I am yet another blogger, but I’m typically referred to as 2Track. For the sake of this blog however you can call me biased, closed minded, even prejudice. Let me explain:

I like hip hop. Like, exclusively. And While that already sounds pretty closed minded, I havent even begun to explain the extent of what I mean. I love hardcore (and soulful) sample-based, hard drum havin, beats with dope emcees on em. I don’t like joints with synthesized drum-kits and techno synths, I don’t like pussy r&b songs and I’m not a fan of reggaton. I don’t like Country, I don’t like classical, rock, dub, 2-step, bachata, soca, etc. I don’t like any of those genres when they’re not funneled through hip hop. I like hardcore sample-based hip-hop. And that’s it. No exceptions and I refuse to feel guilty about it. Disclaimer: I’m fully aware that sample based hip-hop is comprised of samples from other genres of music, but critical readers should also be aware that enjoying a hip-hop beat that contains samples of another genre is clearly not the same as enjoying another genre of music. I’m not getting ready to listen to Blondie, but run a a blondie song through Nottz’s asr-10 & let him do his thing with it and I’ll probably love it. Hell, any genre of music is incredibly interesting when its fresh off of James Yancey’s Mpc 60 but prior, not so much. Sure I can enjoy a song from another genre that somebody sampled but only in retrospect and that’s usually because I’m appreciating how it was used. I love hard and soulful beats and dope emceeing and there are no exceptions. There is no other genre of music I kinda like or listen to on occasion (Excluding soul, everybody loves soul music. In fact if you don’t love soul music your probably a racist, don’t ask how I arrived at that diagnosis just accept it on some ‘house’ sh*t). Apparently this makes me closed minded. Which brings me to the point of this blog (I promise I have one.) Why? Why does “liking what I like, and not liking what I don’t” have a negative connotation. You’d be surprised at the reactions I get when I tell people I don’t like other genres of music. You would’ve thought I said “The Pope aint sh*t”. If you were in a restaurant and the waiter asked you if you would like A1 Sauce with your steak and you said you don’t like A1 sauce he probably wouldn’t assume you were an uncultured, closed minded idiot. He would simply write your preference down on paper and keep it movin. Such as some of you judgmental preference dictators should do. Let people like (or dislike) what they choose. And if that just so happens to be disproportionately skewed towards one genre then so be it. In fact, I would make the argument that anybody with taste that specific is very in touch with what they enjoy. Why should they be berated for knowing exactly what they like. “Open minded” listeners don’t get a bad wrap for being sporadic. How can you just like every damn thing? These preference sluts will actually try to guilt you into liking something your not even interested in. I spent like 4 days trying to figure out why I’m supposed to like regeaton. I can pretty much promise you that I’m not gonna like that sh*t. Until Premo and Just Blaze decide to do an album with Daddy Yankee, I won’t be able to tell you what any of his joints sound like.

Being labeled “eclectic” is about as difficult as being labeled “Promiscuous” and just as synonymous. All you have to do is be indifferent. To be 100% with you, I’m sure I own more records than all these emo-fruits parading their “obscure taste” like it was hard to acquire. Difference is, I got plans for this vinyl that surpass simply hanging it on my wall, or bragging about owning it for the sake of being labeled eclectic. F.O.H.